Handmade Hammy Gift #2 – A Simple Hamster Treat Recipe

So I may be a bit slow on the whole home made hammy treats feature before this Christmas but I am only just finding time to wrap the presents let alone research and try out things for the blog.
I am sure once the hustle and bustle of Xmas (and my birthday next Friday) is over I can settle back down into a routine

Any ways a neat little idea for your beloved furries can be to make your own little treats for them! They say a way to man’s heart is through his belly – well Im pretty sure the same thing goes for pets.
(Not saying that men are animals… Im not honest! Just that some characteristics may be shared. That’s all!)

So here is a SUPER simple recipe for little pet treats (suitable for small furries – not so much big furries as small bits and pieces can be choked on by big furries!)

What you need?

• Honey
• Assorted nuts (or your furries favourite – so sunflower seeds in Dexters case. Make sure theyre not salted varieties)
• A mold tray (funky shaped ice cube trays are ideal!) You can make all kinds of shapes depending on the tray
• Any oats or even original cheerios are good for this recipe

How long will it take?

About 5 minutes to actually make and then another hour or so to set.

How do you make them?

1. Take a mixing bowl and pour in a hammy portion of the assorted nuts and a sprinkling of oats or cheerios
2. Take a spoonful of honey and dollop it into the bowl.
3. Mix it all together, coating as much of the nut/oat mix as possible.
4. Add a spoonful at a time. Once everything is coated -STOP! You want the mixture to be tacky all over not pourable!
5. Take a spoonful of your honey coated mixture and fill it into the ice cube tray.
6. Once all the ice-cube spaces are filled, pop the tray into the fridge for the treats to harden up.
7. After about 1 hour, have a look at your treats. If they are solid-er, take the tray out and pop out the finished article!
8. If they are still squidgy, put them back in and check again later!
9. Give them to your furry – watch them enjoy the sweet delight!

With this recipe you can swap in your favourite pet nibbles! Like for example, Dexter LOVES his sunflower seeds and peanuts. So I could mix together sunflower seeds, some chopped peanuts and some oats to bulk it out. Chuck in the honey and ta-dah! Dex could have a treaty-delight!!!

How awesome would that be!!

 

 

Handmade Hammy Gift #1 – Funky Tunnel-Tube

I promised you some handmade crafts to fill those hamster-stockings! And here I am with instalment number ONE!

Now before I begin I would like to point out that this can actually be done for ANY occasion, so that could be your hammys birthday / they just need cheering up/ or like I am demonstrating here, Christmas of course!

It is not expensive, it is some thrifty thinking and just perfect to make your hammy’s feel that festive spirit!

WHAT IS IT?!
It is a decorative tube for your furries!

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO MAKE??
No more than 1 minute!

WHAT WILL YOU NEED??
Some wrapping paper, a used up toilet roll/kitchen roll or even pringle tube, some sellotape and some scissors!

WHAT TO DO:

Step 1

When wrapping up those Christmas presents – keep hold of the scraps that you cut off and would otherwise throw away. You wont need much! If there aren’t any scraps, just cut a small section off and place to one side.
This is the brilliance of this little gift is that it doesnt need to be Christmas wrapping paper. It could be birthday wrapping paper or even just a pretty designed wrapping paper. Whatever takes your fancy (I would still to paper though as the foil wrapping papers may not be so good for hamsters cages)

Step 2.

Take your tube/tunnel and place it in the centre of your wrapping paper scrap. Remember if you don’t have an actual tube bought from a shop a used up toilet roll inner-bit is just as good and practically free as you’d only throw it away anyway!!
If you have a bigger furry, a washed out pringles tube with the ends popped out is also perfectly good! Just make sure that you have enough wrapping paper for whatever sized tube you are using!

Step 3

Use small tabs of sellotape to stick down the wrapping paper as it covers the tube.  Trim the excess paper from the edges as you want it to look all neat and voila! You have yourself one funky tubey-tunnel for your hamster!!!

Quick, easy and doesnt need to cost you any extra pennies! It really can be whatever you make of it and it can brighten up your hamsters environment! Who said handmade had to be complicated!
Use that imagination of yours!

That’s one hamster stocking filler down, I wonder how many more to go?!
Lots of love!
xxxxx

Eve the Artist

We all know, or have heard of, the inspiring story of the elephant artists.
These real elephants paint unique artworks using a paintbrush held in their trunks. How clever right!!!

Above, is an actual piece of elephant art – super impressive!! It has now become quite the trending thing with elephants all over the globe turning their hand trunk to painting!

Well now, its no longer just the elephants that are creating their own artworks.

Eve has broken down the animal/art barrier and has created some masterpieces (if I do say so myself).

Now they may not be quite as picturesque as the elephants handywork I’ll admit, but what Eve has come up with, could potentially be the pioneering abstract artwork that is HAMST-ARTWORK! 

This is what I’m on about…

“The Confused Rainbow” by Eve 2012©

That right there is the first HAMST-ARTWORK that has been seen by human eyes
The piece is called ‘The Confused Rainbow” because its all very colourful but not in the conventional rainbow way (hahaha look at me getting all arty!!)
I cannot take much credit for this piece as it was all Eve’s paw-work.

But HOW did a hamster create such a wonderful picture, I hear you ask!
Well let me show you how she did it.
I have got an free app on my iPad called ‘Drawing Box‘. It gives you a blank canvas and pencils and paints etc to create pictures at your fingertips. Well I am not good at drawing. The best I can do is a smiley face or at a push, a flower which any self-respecting 5 year old would snigger at. 

So in a beautifully timed moment, Eve clambers onto my iPad screen and starts licking and walking across the blank canvas.

Well the heat from her little paws (and tongue) must have been enough to trigger a reaction on the iPad and so spikey, uncontrollable lines starting zooming across the canvas creating some of which you see above.
The only input I humanly had over the process was changing the colour of the ‘pencil’ so that when she climbed back onto the screen, a different colour would zoom across the page.

After a few minutes of frantic clawing, walking and licking, a masterpiece was made!

In this picture of the artist at work, you can see her licking the screen which creates zagged lines across the page as the iPad gets confused at the heat signals of her paws and tongue.

The lines create the effect you see in the finished pieces.

Along the bottom of the shot you can see the paint pallet (it does extend with a total of 78 unique colours) which I would just select, on Eve’s behalf, and then put her back on the screen to continue with her drawing.

Now the picture you actually see her ‘drawing’ in these pictures didnt save properly
So I don’t have the finished article of this piece to actually show you BUT Eve didn’t stop there, she created another picture all in pink (shown below).

So like I was saying before, she may not have quite the accuracy as the elephants but then she is lacking a trunk so all is forgiven in that department.

She really seemed to be fixated with the iPad screen.
I’m wondering whether I had something tasty on my fingers and then have used it on the screen, hence its clearly so tasty for Eve.

But we shall never truly know!

Anyways, here is the second artwork I have to show you all. This one was completely in PINK! And all the different shades of my favourite colour so this is right up there in my favourite Eve-Pics  

“Pretty in Pink” by Eve 2012©

I am so proud of my artistic hamster
And as yesterday was Remembrance Day (and we didn’t forget – it just didn’t occur to me how I could signify such a day on the blog until last night) with a little help from a human hand, Eve has drawn a very fitting tribute to the day.
After doing her thing on the canvas in just red, I used the rubber feature to rub out a poppy outline and then finished off the picture with a black centre dot.
And ta-dah there you have a Remembrance Poppy.

“A Poppy for Remembrance Day” by Eve 2012©

Do any of you folks out there have an iPad??
Search your app store for ‘Drawing Box FREE’ and give this a go with your furries!
See what kind of artwork you can create – its so much fun you should really give it a go!!!
xxx

P.S. “Sorry, no autographs,” squeaks Eve.

The Votes Are In..

My minions have totted up the results of the Halloween Hamster Costume Vote. (By minions, I mean WordPress’s poll thingy)

Dexter:
Total Votes: 25
Last Place: Dracula’s Bat with 5 votes (20%)
Runner Up: Zombie with 7 votes (28%)

Winner: Incy-Wincy Spider with 13 votes (52%)

Eve:
Total Votes: 22
Last Place: Devil with 2 votes (9%)
Runner Up: Pumpkin with 9 votes (41%)

Winner: Witch with 11 votes (50%)

Casper:
Total Votes: 22
Last Place: Vampire with 3 votes (14%)
Runner Up: Ghosty with 9 votes (41%)

Winner (only just): Skeleton with 10 votes (45%)

We are going to have one spook-tastic Halloween! Now the hard work can begin and I can start the costume making process. Hold ya breath everybody!!

The Hamster Halloween Costume Vote

Now October doesn’t have many positives. Its getting colder. Its getting darker. And its getting colder. I am a summer-lover – walking round in my puffy fat coat and losing the feelings in my fingertips is not my idea of a good time.
So basically October gets a bum deal.
What is the best bit about this gloomy month? The last day of it of course; Halloween!

It may be 3 weeks away but I am looking forward to it already. Its that occasion I can dress up and no-one cares or looks at you funny!  Less about me!

In the true spirit of things, I am going to make the hammys little costumes –  horrifying hamster outfits ;D
In true ‘me’-style I couldnt possibly decide what to dress them up as and this is where YOU come in.

Below are 3 polls.
One for Dexter, one for Eve and one for Casper. On each poll there is a choice of three frightening-fancy dress ideas for the hams (don’t think ‘how will she manage that?’ because I will worry myself with that at a later date!)

Now I would be mighty appreciative if you could chose a costume for each hamster in the polls below. I will leave this post at the top of my page until this Sunday. So you have until
Midnight on Sunday 14th October
to vote for your favourite outfit choice. You can vote more than once, so if you really can’t decide between some you can just reload the page and vote all over again! Thank you all for making my mind up for me!

The “Space” Dilema

For a little while now I have been super duper tempted to upgrade the hammys cages. I feel that they may need a little bit more space, Dexter especially as he loves to run like no other hamster Ive seen.
Their cages are fine as they are, I am aware of that.
And to buy new cages for 3 hamsters is going to be expensive as hell so would have to be done one at a time anyway. Its all going against me. I want them to have more space… but my purse and the amount of room a bigger cage will take up are the killer factors.

Arghhh! Such a dilema! I dont know what Im going to do!

I have seen some pretty awwwwesome home-made cages; you remember Hammy Happenings, that blog I was ranting about earlier this week? Well the customised cage on their is impressive. I just dont think I can even begin to make something anywhere near as good!

I am thinking a homemade cage is the angle I should go for. I have a shelf for measurements and would be able to make it fit perfectly. But then Id need plastic and space for their BIG saucers and arghh it seems like so much hassle!

Advice anyone??

Today: Open an Etsy Shop. Tomorrow: World Domination!

I have set up an Etsy shop.
*round of applause*

Okay I may need to rewind a little bit here because this is a little out of the blue.
Before I went on holiday, I went all craft-crazy! I printed my own abstract animal designs onto a set of cotton shoulder bags.

So far there are 5 designs but custom designs can be requested (hint hint!)

TA-DAHH!!

After making 5 bags (a blue eyed kitty, a green eyed kitty, a puppy dog, a hamster and a bunny rabbit) I thought ‘hmmm, maybe people would like to have one of these bags of their own!’ 
So I have loaded up the bags onto Etsy. Now what is Etsy? It is a place to open your own little “online shop” where you can sell hand-crafted items, vintage items or craft supplies -my bags falling into the hand-crafted category!

The shoulder bags are 100% natural and eco-friendly cotton so if you go out shopping you can feel that little bit better knowing you are not harming the environment with all them plastic bags! Also the long straps mean they fit perfectly over your shoulder and look bloomin’ great!

All the designs are done by me! The actual look of the bags came to me in a dream, seriously! I was going for that minimal, abstract look that looks modern and quirky! Timeless, thats the word I was looking for, timeless!

I have made it possible on the shop to customise your own shoulder bag. So say you have a blue eyed kitty cat with ginger ears, you can request that and have your very own kitty cat bag made for you! How cool is that!

All the designs can be customised to your own pets look – for bunny rabbits, doggies, hamsters, mice, rats, guinea piggies and gerbils – so each bag is unique and personal to you!

Can I also point out the whiskers are raised on all the designs for that extra eye-catching effect! Dont believe me, you’re going to have to get one to see!

Now my Etsy shop doesn’t look all that mind-blowing – I only opened it yesterday guys – don’t be too harsh on me!

AND I have a secret for all my blog readers.
A 20% discount on any order!

Coupon Code:
HAMSTERDIARIES20

That right there is EXCLUSIVE for you guys! So make the most of it!

And because I am feeling generous – FREE postage to the UK for any size order! WOOHOO! More bang for your buck or what!

If things go out of stock, I will work super quick to have them replaced so don’t panic. There is only one of each so far because I am just dipping my toe in the water AND I am leaving it open for customisations.

So what do you guys think??

CLICK HERE TO VISIT MY ETSY SHOP

Check it out, comment below let me know what you think of my designs.

How To Personalize Your Hamsters Water Bottle

Now I don’t know about everyone else, but I like things to be personalized.
Its nice to know that the things I’m surrounded by are unique to me!

So applying this mind-set to my little hamsters got me thinking.
What can I personalize for them?

Their water bottles!!

So here is a step by step guide to how I transformed Dexters water bottle from this…

 … into this awesome Tetris-styled bottle!

What you need:

• A water bottle
• A paintbrush
• Glass paints (Save or Splurge on these)
• A pot of water
• Kitchen roll (for correcting mistakes of course!)

Time Required:

30 minutes (Further drying time required when complete = approx. 1-2 hours)

 

Step 1.

 Assemble all of the equipment you will need on a covered table so that everything is in easy reach. Glass paints can be very quick setting and therefore if you make a mistake, dip the kitchen roll in water and wipe off immediately.  Black paint smears never look cool!

Also if you are following my tetris design then here is the layout!

I recommend you draw out and design any ideas you have before you get started especially if you are a perfectionist like myself! I had to draw out 6 whole plans before I could make a tetris-y pattern that worked! (Yes it had to be perfect!)

As you can also see, I am working with 4 basic colours which I have tried to keep an even mix throughout the design.

Step 2.

Outline your design using the black paste/pen. This holds in all the paint that you shall soon apply and also give a neat professional(ish) finish!

I started by drawing on the boxes, as straight as I can! I have such an unsteady hand it was a miracle they came out this well. Yes people, this is well-drawn for me!

I have even added in a falling block as well – YOU GOTTA LIVE A LITTLE!

Before moving onto step 3, you must leave the outlines to dry. Depending on the product you are using is how long it takes. In my case it dried in 30 minutes or so.

Step 3.

Once your outlines have dried – test this by gently dabbing your finger and seeing!

Now the fun bit! You get to fill in all those boxes with your desired colours!

Its best to start with yellow – light colours first durrr!

You should see that the lines you have drawn in step 2 actually hold the colour in.

Also as you are using glass paint, the light can travel through it and make cool reflections on the walls but more importantly you can still see the level of water your hamster has left

Its best to leave each colour to dry before doing the next however, its not necessary as the black outlines help out massively!

  

Step 4.

Pretty much the same as step 3, its filling in the boxes. Lightest colour to darkest works better as you can always cover over mistakes with the darker colour but never the other way around!

You may think that you dont like the way the colours suddenly look messy due to the transparency however I think it gives a pretty dimension and makes it really 3D. Im no artist so easy to draw blocks are a winner for me!

Step 5.

Now once all the paints are dried (This varies in time depending on product. But for me, it took about an hour)

Now all thats left is to fill up your water bottle and DAH-DAHHHH!

NOTE: Do not paint the dispenser bit that pokes into the hammys cage as these paints are NOT safe to be nibbling off and eating.

Personalized your hamsters water bottle? Email me the photos – Id love to see and can feature you in a post!

What do you think of my attempt (be nice now!)

xx

How To Build a Hamster Maze

In the past couple of weeks I have spent a HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE amount of money on toys for my two lovely hamsters.
And I mean a seriously unjustifiable sum of money.

So while I was worrying that my hamsters might get bored, I had an idea to build a tunnel-style maze for my hammys!
Below is a picture of the end result.

It may not look very professional but it is made up of recycled bottles and so was free!
Thats right, Hamster Diaries is being thrifty!   

P.s This is not a toy to be left in a hamsters cage for long periods of time as its made up of lots of plastic; nibbling for long on plastic may lead to sharp edges and upset hamster.
This can be used when you are playing with your pet for short periods of time.

I have put together a step-by-step guide together of how I have done it if you want to make your own at home!
This is very much a maze you can add to (as I suppose its hardly a maze yet but you get the jist of it) and can be customized for whatever your pet needs may be!

Interested? 

PLEASE NOTE: I used sharp tools to make this, so pretty please take extra care if you do attempt this

What you need:

• Empty plastic drinks bottles (larger ones would be required for larger rodents i.e. rats and under no circumstances use metal cans)
• Electrical tape
• Scissors
• Stanley knife

Time Required:

Approx. 30 minutes

Procedure:

1. Firstly, wash out all of the bottles – you don’t want smelly and sticky tunnels for your pets!
Also remove the labels and lids; they just get in the way!
I have started off this project with 4 bottles but this can easily be added to at any stage – its just a matter of storage afterwards that is a hold-back. See how many different colours you can get with the bottles, really personalise your maze!

2. CAREFULLY use the stanley knife to remove the top and bottom of each bottle in turn.I recommend you do this on a sensible solid surface. I am a terrible role model as I did this on top of my bed but I am giving you the heads up now – I very nearly sliced holes into my lovely duvet and wouldn’t want anyone else to do the same!
Also please be aware that the edges you cut will most probably be jagged and sharp. We will sort that out in step 3.

3. This is where the electrical tape comes into play. Electrical tape is perfect for this project as it sticks to plastic well and also sticks round corners well.
Covering over the jagged edges is important as you don’t want to cut little paws!
Take short strips of tape and stick them half down onto the rim of the bottle. Then make cuts into the tape approximately 1cm apart, and stick down onto the other side. This means that the tape sticks better round corners.
Its very time consuming but is also very important.
Once you’ve done all this to all the bottles you have you are ready for step 4.

 4. In preparation to join two of your bottles together in a ‘T’ shape there is a lot of fiddley cutting to do.
Using the stanley knife, slice a ‘+’ into the side of one bottle.
Peel the plastic back being careful not to yank too hard as the plastic will “rip” and the bottle is rendered useless!
This then allows a little room for scissors to slip in and you should be able to cut a circle shape just about.
Then using the method as before, use 1cm strips of electrical tape to cover the entire edge of the newly cut circle.

 5. Take the bottle you wish to attach to the first and squeeze the bottle as flat as you can make it (harder than it looks).
Cut diagonal lines across the top and bottom, as shown in the first picture, which will give the edge a curve in which the first bottle will sit comfortably, as shown in the second picture.
Dont worry too much about cutting off an already taped up section as you can just re-tape it at this stage. It tends to look neater too.

 6. Holding your two tubes together in place, you should notice the tube you completed in step 5 fits snugly against the tube you completed in step 4.
Whilst holding them in position, use one long piece of tape to attach the first side and let it stretch all the way round the other side until it attaches the bottom side of the tube too.  That isnt worded very well and Im not sure my photo explains it any better, sorry!
Basically just use a few pieces of tape to hold the tubes together in place. I trimmed bits of tape so it looked neater as I have obsessive tendencies.

 7. Now your two tubes should look something like the following picture.
But you still have 2 tubes to use right?
Go back to step 4 and repeat the steps from there for them two tubes.
…
You already repeated that bit? Good, now you should have two sets of two tubes that look something like the following picture!

 8. The final thing to do is to position your two sets of two tubes together in a straight line and tape them together.
These two bottles just so happened to slot together comfortably so taping them together wasn’t too stressful however if your tubes dont fit snugly, mix and match a few other ends to see what works closest and is therefore easier to attach!

So the finished article is ready to go!
Using the really rubbishy playpen I slated in my post ‘Theres no escape! Oh wait, yes there is!’
(http://hamsterdiaries.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/theres-no-escape-oh-wait-yes-there-is/ )
I put the newly created tunnel maze into the pen and got both hamsters to test it out!
(VIDEOS COMING SOON)

Both Dexter and Eve went through the tunnels, maybe with a little encouragement, but even so!
I would have spent another £30 easily on buying 4 plastic tunnels from a shop whereas this was free, killed some time, is see-through so sneaky hamsters cant hide away and looks so much cooler!

There is definitely some room for personalisation here too!
Not only personalisation but this whole thing can be added to so easily!
Never need to throw away a plastic bottle again now!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my little creative streak!
I think the hamsters did…

If anyone tries this themselves, feel free to email me the photograph (gemz59@yahoo.co.uk) and Ill pop it in a post! 

So what do you think? Got any ideas for home-made toys yourself?
 Comment, like and follow!

xx